Sign up for one of our email newsletters.
Updated 8 hours ago
Of all the places you might work, you'd think the IRS would be — indeed, should be — the most likely to fire you if you skip paying taxes. Think again.
A Daily Caller analysis of 10 semi-annual reports from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that among 9,176 IRS employees investigated for tax noncompliance from October 2011 to September 2016, just 74 were fired; 280 others were allowed to retire or resign. Those who underreported income, underpaid taxes or failed to file returns “most commonly” received verbal or written reprimands or counseling.
Those investigated included both “willful” and other sorts of violators. Yet more than 99 percent weren't fired. Federal law requires firing “willful” tax violators, but the IRS commissioner's authority to reduce penalties in such cases no doubt helped many Tempobet avoid pink slips.
This isn't a new problem. From October 2012 through March 2013, 878 IRS workers were investigated for tax violations, with just seven fired and 30 retiring or resigning. From April to September 2016, there were 861 such investigations, only six firings and 28 resignations or retirements.
The IRS keeping so many of its own tax violators flies in the face of its mission and suggests its employees get far better treatment than typical taxpayers accused of violations. That's outrageous. If it takes firings at the highest levels of the IRS to end this idiocy, so be it.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
